Book Reviews & Thoughts

Blackmail Boyfriend – Chris Cannon

Synopsis

Sometimes, blackmail is the only weapon a girl has…

Haley Patterson has had a crush on golden boy Bryce Colton for ages. But when she hears a rumor that he hooked up with her she gives him a choice: be her boyfriend for a month to show other guys that she’s dateable—despite her overprotective and very intimidating brothers—or deal with the angry, cage-fighting boyfriend of the girl he actually did hook up with.

Bryce didn’t know the other Haley even had a boyfriend. He was just trying to get his ex off his back. And now, not only is he being blackmailed, he’s being blackmailed by an honor student. His new “girlfriend” has two three-legged dogs, her father mows grass at the country club, and she’s…well, difficult. And different.

Can something so fake turn into something real?

Review

This book was not good. I was intrigued by the premise, but the characters and execution ruined the story.

Haley Patterson was so angry, jealous, and insecure all the time. She needs to realize that in order to attract people, she needs to become a more attractive person. Blackmail is not conducive to a healthy relationship. She needs to trust that her so-called boyfriend can TALK to other people without an issue, or spend time with other people. It is completely unreasonable to force him into being a personal chauffeur or slave.

The dichotomy between Bryce and Nathan made both characters seem unrealistic. If Nathan is such a good guy, and also super-freaking rich and powerful, why doesn’t he have girls throwing themselves at him, the way they do Bryce? I find it hard to believe that he could be so easily won over by cookies and cupcakes. Why is Bryce so whiny and entitled? Wouldn’t his best friend give him a reality check at some point?

Blackmail is immature in its nature. I definitely expected Haley to blackmail Bryce, only for them to realize that they fell in love for real. Come on, that’s how ALL “pretend’ books go. But in this case, we don’t really get to see them fall in love? They go from 0 to 100 really quickly. And they’re hot n cold all the time. And now I’m quoting old pop songs, great. But essentially, I expected a romance to blossom in the unlikeliest of places, but we didn’t get any real romance whatsoever.

There was a pretty major plot point that came out of left field. What was the value in that anecdote?

Also, the ending was unwarranted and out of character. One character seriously hasn’t grown at all, if he thinks throwing money at things will always solve problems. A sincere phone call would have sufficed.